Your letter of June——1 inviting me, in behalf of the Corporation of the City of N. York to the celebration of the approaching anniversary of American Independence, having passed on to a post office South of me, has but this moment come to hand on its return.

Had the present State of my health therefore which obliged me to decline a previous invitation to a like celebration less distant, not been a bar to the acceptance of yours, the above date will suggest an insuperable one.

I beg the Corporation to be assured of my sensibility to the flattering attention for which I am indebted, and of the great pleasure with which I should join my fellow Citizens of N. York, in commemorating the day so dear to American patriotism, and introducing an Era so splendid in the progress of human Society. Be pleased to accept the assurance of my respectful consideration and great esteem.